AN EIGHT-months-pregnant woman was rescued from her blazing home - then gave birth to a baby girl just hours later.

Last night her partner, Dean Watkins, 34, (pictured) told how they were lucky to be alive after fire ripped through their terrace home.

Deborah Cook, 25, had to be rescued by neighbours in the early hours of yesterday morning from the burning house in Bristol Street, Maindee, Newport. She later gave birth by emergency Caesarean at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Last night she was out of intensive care after being treated for smoke inhalation, while the couple's baby, Cerys Marie, is doing well in the hospital's neo-natal unit.

Miss Cook and Mr Watkins returned from their local pub on Thursday night at around 11pm.

Mr Watkins put a chip pan on the kitchen stove and went to the living- room, where he and his partner dozed off. They woke at 1am to find the house on fire.

Mr Watkins said: "I tried my best to get her out of the house but I couldn't move her. There was smoke in my lungs and I had to get out.

"All I could think about was her and the baby. I was terrified."

Mr Watkins, a labourer, got out of the house safely, but Miss Cook, who has a twisted spine and has difficulty walking, lay on the living-room floor, unable to move.

While smoke billowed from the house, three brave neighbours crawled inside on their hands and knees and carried the stricken woman to safety. Firefighters arrived shortly afterwards and extinguished the blaze, and Miss Cook was conscious but in shock.

Firefighter Raymond Darr was injured after falling at the scene, said sub-officer Mike Smith, from Duffryn fire station.

Billy Cockeram, 55, who lives opposite the couple, helped rescue Miss Cook.

"We went in there on our hands and knees to get below the smoke, which was everywhere.

"It was pitch black inside," said Mr Cockeram, a shopkeeper.

"I held a torch while the other two picked her up and carried her outside by her shoulders and ankles - she was hysterical but we managed to get her out.

"I don't know if it was heroic - you don't think about it at the time, you just do what you have to do."

Cerys Marie was born a month early, weighing four and a half pounds. Mr Watkins said: "I'm so grateful to my neighbours, they saved Deborah's and the baby's lives.

"The police said we were lucky to be alive, and they were right," he said.

"I've been through it all. One moment I had a house with everything inside, now there's nothing left - everything's either destroyed or smoke damaged.

"But they're just material things - the main thing is that everyone's going to be OK."